Written by Diablo Cody and directed by Jason Reitman, Young Adult stars Charlize Theron as an it’s-okay-you’re-supposed-to-hate-her alcoholic narcissist named Mavis, Patrick Wilson as Mavis’s small-town high-school boyfriend who she sets out to seduce, and Patton Oswalt as the former locker-next-door-having nerd. While it does have a few inspired moments, they’re just that—two-to-four-minute periods of insight and humor, showing the potential of what all these people could’ve made if they hadn’t taken a few dozen wrong turns. The whole movie is so off-key, so toneless and directionless, that it’s difficult to just sit and experience the thing without interrupting it to wonder what its creators were trying to do. (ANNA MINARD)